WESTERNS AND HORROR aren’t usually the first two genres people think of when putting together a scary movie, but let’s be honest, the Wild West was already a pretty damn disturbing place. Lawlessness, violence, outlaws, death and plenty of questionable decisions made by people carrying loaded six shooters? Sounds like a pretty good setting for a horror movie to us.
Now, Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone and Twilight and Dark Winds star Kiowa Gordon are heading into that territory with THE CURSE OF SILVER, a new supernatural horror western that will reunite the pair with Quantum Cowboys director Geoff Marslett, who is co-directing the film alongside Gordon.
Deadline was first to report the casting news in an exclusive, with the project currently making its way through the 2026 Gotham Week Project Market.
Deadline details the film as being “Set along the lawless Texas-Mexico border in the aftermath of the Civil War, THE CURSE OF SILVER follows two Union deserters who come across a cursed chest filled with Confederate silver. They drag their mysterious haul into a town already under siege, only to discover that they’ve brought something far worse with them. The silver unleashes a wave of supernatural violence, turning an already dangerous stretch of the American frontier into something considerably more terrifying.”
There is plenty of room for horror in a Western setting, especially when you start looking beyond the familiar imagery of dusty towns, horseback riders and shootouts in the street. The post Civil War era was filled with conflict and uncertainty, and dropping a supernatural curse into that environment gives the filmmakers plenty of room to play with the darker side of the period.
Gladstone is coming off her Oscar nominated performance in Killers of the Flower Moon and has continued building an impressive list of genre and dramatic projects. Gordon should also be familiar to horror and genre fans thanks to his work in Twilight and AMC’s Dark Winds.
THE CURSE OF SILVER is being produced by Liz Cardenas and Ram Getz, with Gladstone, Gordon and Michael Mortensen serving as executive producers. The screenplay comes from Marslett and Rafael A. Ruiz.
There is currently no release date for THE CURSE OF SILVER, but we’re already curious to see what happens when the rules of the Wild West meet something that six shooters can’t exactly solve.